Category: culture

I am more positive about All Stars Cricket than Darren, but I do agree with his prognosis – introducing a new entry-level offering for 5-8 year olds can only be the start of a five (or 10) year plan to bring players back to the game, and as yet there is little discernible evidence of that master plan from the ECB.

As someone who earns his living from coaching the game of cricket, before 1963 I would have been a “Player“, who used a separate changing room, probably ate lunch apart from the Gentlemen, and would have been listed on scorecards as Beaven A. R. (or, indeed, as “Teesra T[he]”), not A.R. Beaven.

Archaic, in the 21st Century, surely?

Perhaps – but does the distinction between “Gentlemen” and “Players” still persist in 2016?

Socio-cultural constraints – how a player’s social and cultural background influences learning behaviour…not something I ever expected to blog about.

However, translating frantically, if we were to say that the coach really should try to understand where the players come from, then this becomes a little easier to put into practice.

Two recent examples:

with a 10 year old girl, county age group, lots of advice from different directions, all well intentioned but sometimes contradictory – “smile sweetly, say ‘thank you’, take on board everything you have been told…and find out what works for you“

with an 11 year old boy…challenge their logic, challenge their pride – “what happened then? did it work? can you do it again? snd what can you do next time to get an even better outcome?”